A Conversation With Dad

Ring-ring, the telephone woke me up.
Barely able to get out “hello,” I answered.
At the other end I heard my father’s voice. He was just checking in with me, as he likes to do these days.
“Did I wake you Honey?” He asked.
“That’s okay,” I said, “just sleeping a little late today.”
“So how was your day yesterday?” He asked.
Worthy of a few pictures, I told him, but unfortunately I left my camera at home.
I was up and out early for a morning meeting. The air was crisp as an apple, I told him, and the dawn was beautiful.
“Then,” I said, “I thought I saw a large deer cross the road, but it really didn’t look like at deer at all.”
In fact, the animal was too big and the wrong color, and I just knew it wasn’t a deer.
I stopped the car and watched the animal with fuzzy antlers cross the road.
“I think it was an elk,” I said.
“Wow!” Dad replied.
It went over the fence along with five girl elks, and they ran up the valley away from the dirt road stopping only once to look back me.
“As big as horses, Dad,” I said.
That’s amazing!” Dad said.
I continued my story. After the meeting I went to the car shop for an oil change. I thought I’d be in and out in a half-an-hour, but that wasn’t the case.
“They found a huge rat’s nest in my engine,” I told him.
You just wouldn’t believe how intricate it was. Made with all sorts of materials like burlap, lint, strips of paper, dried clippings from the rose bush, and sage weed.
I told Dad the service technician didn’t seem too thrilled to stick his hands in there and pull it all out.
“Who could blame him,” Dad said.
“I bet that rat couldn’t believe her good fortune,” I said, “finding such a warm dry place to nest for the winter.”
“Oh my,” Dad said. “What are you going to do to keep them out?”
“Don’t know,” I said. “Maybe lift the hood every few days.”
As it turned out, no wires or tubes were chewed through, and the car runs fine.
“Well, honey,” Dad said, “sounds like you had quite a day, but I’m glad it wasn’t the other way around.”
I paused.
“What do you mean, Dad?”
“Well,” he said, “you could have seen a herd of rats cross the road and an elk could have made a nest in your car.”
I paused.
“Oh Dad!”
We both laughed.